Leigh's Fanfiction Archive Stormkeeper's Fanfiction Freedom Chapter 22
Freedom
By Stormkeeper
Chapter 22
After finishing a session in the reconstructed Danger Room, Rogue and Gambit exited that part of the gym. They then entered the main portion of the gymnasium to get in a little extra training, Gambit selecting weight lifting and Rogue opting for jogging around the track.
Given that Rogue was practically indestructible, she knew that she did not need to train outside of the Danger Room quite as intensely as some of the others. However, all X-men had to be prepared to defend themselves and fight should their powers be taken from them by collars or another means. Occasionally Rogue and some of the others would put a collar on and lift weights or practice sparring one-on-one. For most of the X-men, the act of willingly donning a collar was a struggle in and of itself as they carried such horrific memories with them. It was always a mixed feeling for Rogue. The collars brought painful memories, yes, but also pleasurable ones as she and Gambit had used them to their advantage before Rogue had gotten a handle on her powers. She would never forget the evening on the Paradise Planet where she had very willingly placed a collar on herself so that she and Gambit could experience their skin-to-skin, mouth-to-mouth genuine wet kiss.
That day, however, one of the more unpleasant memories resurfaced for Rogue as she jogged around the track and spotted the former FOH soldier entering the gym. Feeling not the least bit winded and wondering whether she should have worn a collar for this portion of her training, Rogue eyed Mark. He got to work, cleaning out the pool and then setting about tidying up the rest of the gym, moving discarded equipment back to the storage area. Rogue eventually sprinted over to where Gambit was pumping iron.
"What's he doin'?" Rogue asked Gambit quietly, gesturing at Mark.
"Looks like he doin' more cleanin,'" Gambit observed.
"I thought his probation was over and that he'd done all of that 'community service' stuff."
Gambit shrugged. "Maybe he be bored and wanna do more to help. Dat is supposed to be why he's here---to help us. An' he must get bored too since he don't spend half the day training like we do."
Rogue crossed her arms over her chest. "Maybe he feels guilty over all the mutants he tortured and wants to make his sorry ass feel less guilty."
"Dat may be so." Gambit turned and looked at Rogue's eyes. "At leas' he wants to do the right t'ing, wants to help us. He could be resting on dat moon, playin' cards in the rec room instead of working in a starship with fifteen people who suspicious of him an' exclude him."
Rogue bit her tongue just in time to keep from making a remark like, You're always too sweet on him.' She had no wish to begin another quarrel with Gambit, especially since they'd fought about Mark in the past. The couple had also patched up their last argument and had basically arrived at an agreement to not discuss Gambit's past love life. Rogue knew she had to accept it. And Gambit knew he had to let go of his own anger at Rogue's resentment of the past.
"Yeah, you got a point there, Swamp Rat," Rogue admitted.
"I got an idea, chere. Let's invite Mark to have dinner wit' us. In our quarters some evening. We could get to know him better. Storm says she's sat wit' him in the mess hall for meals an' dat Mark's a nice guy. Bobby said the same t'ing once too."
Rogue mulled over that for a second, slowly exhaling. She then touched a hand to one of Gambit's arms. "Gambit…sugar, I ain't ready for doin' something like that right yet. Maybe later, okay? If I gotta accept that he's here, then fine. But I ain't really ready to become friends with him."
Gambit nodded. The idea had really just popped into his head and he'd regretted it the moment he'd finished speaking. But Rogue's levelheaded and fair response impressed him. He thought that maybe she was truly coming to accept Mark's presence.
"We are now approximately ten days from earth," Cyclops addressed the X-men. The group was sitting at a table in one of the conference rooms. Only five of the ship's inhabitants were absent from this meeting that Cyclops and Storm had called---- Jeanne-Marie sat on bridge duty and Mark was babysitting the three children in the rec room.
Jean and Cyclops trusted Mark to the extent that they were fully comfortable having him look after their children. Jean knew for certain that he did not pose a threat to them, and Charlotte quite clearly liked him. And Jubilee felt that if Jean and Scott trusted him with their children, she could certainly have Mark look after Rory as well. Like most of the X-men, Jubilee hadn't ever really sat down with Mark or made a strong effort to get to know him. But she knew that Jean and Bobby had both had conversations with him and that Jean's powers wouldn't fail in their assessment of him.
"When will you be within telepathic range?" Bobby asked Jean.
"Probably within six to eight days," Jean replied. "I will begin my work as soon as I can start sensing minds on earth and finding those of the FOH leadership. Once I have the connection established, I will want to seclude myself in a conference room. I'll be doing some intense work, and it's best if my concentration won't be interrupted by anything."
"Take it dat means Cyke will be doin' all the babysitting den," Gambit quipped.
"Yes," Jean smiled, and turned to look at her husband. "The kids will be yours, dear…..until it's Christopher's feeding time."
Scott returned Jean's smile. "My pleasure." He enjoyed spending virtually all of his free time with the children.
Beast watched the couple's exchange and saw the look of devotion and pride on Cyclops's face. He noted that in the years he had known Cyclops, the X-men leader definitely had mellowed and softened a bit since becoming a father. I wonder how fatherhood will change me,' Beast speculated.
"How long will the process take?" Shaman asked Jean.
Jean shrugged. "That is really the unknown here. The first step requires me to sort through literally billions of minds on earth and locate those of the FOH leadership. That one step could potentially take hours or days. Remember I have never met any of these people face-to-face, so I don't have any kind of mental signature' to go off of. Once I do establish a connection, I will then need to enter their minds and subtly do some work---feeding them ideas, changing thoughts and beliefs that are very strongly held. I expect some of their minds and wills to be weak, and others to be very strong." She paused. "It's really hard to get an accurate time estimate but I would say at the very least it will take three or four days, and potentially much longer."
"Would it be easier if I teleported down and brought the leaders to you one by one?" Nightcrawler asked.
"No," Cyclops answered, "we want to use stealth in this mission----the leaders' absences would be noticed."
"And this is supposed to be a low risk mission," Wolverine said. "Once we start bringin' the bastards on board the ship, we're really uping the risks."
Nightcrawler nodded. The room was then silent for a few moments until Storm spoke. "There might be wisdom in going slowly," Storm said. "In taking all the time that you need, Jean, to complete this. If the FOH leaders change their behavior, it will certainly be noticed. The less suspicion aroused, the better. And change does take time. I think we need to allow this to be somewhat gradual."
More nods were exchanged at the table and the room was silent for a bit more. "What 'bout Emma Frost?" Rogue piped up. "Last we heard, she's workin' for FOH. And on the last mission, she caused us major trouble. She really interfered with what the Professor was doin'."
Jean took a breath. "I expect her to be my biggest challenge. Charles and I had several conversations about this on An'zhina, and I feel that I have some understanding as to the extent of her powers. If she's on a par with the Professor, then she's on a par with me, obviously. She's the one dangerous element I see in this mission."
"She's gonna let FOH know we're out here," Wolverine said.
"All we can do in that case," Cyclops said, "is remain cloaked, and continually change our position."
"And hope that the Friends of Humanity have not improved their cloaking detection technology," Beast added.
"If they have, we will warp away from earth. We'll have to, since we designed this to be a low-risk mission."
"Can Emma pigeon-hole our location?" Rogue asked.
"I've wondered about that a lot," Jean said. "I wondered if I myself were on a planet, and I sensed a dozen minds floating in space….it might take me some time, and it would be much easier if I were in a starship myself, but I think I could find them eventually."
The room was silent for a moment. "Therefore we still must use the utmost caution at all times," Hank concluded.
"Well said," Storm commented. "Does anyone have any more questions or items to go over for the group?"
"I got one," Wolverine said. All eyes in the room turned to him, in wonderment of what he might say. "If this mission don't work, I wanna return to earth."
Gasps were made and eyebrows raised. "What?" Bobby asked.
"We been biding our time too damn long, not making any difference for mutants on earth. If this don't work, I wanna beam back down and start leading an underground resistance against the bastards. I'll go by myself. We gotta start a rebellion, or find people who already are workin' against FOH."
"He has a point," Shaman said. "FOH has so much control over the governments and media of many different countries. Surely we're not the only people who oppose them, who see them for what they really are."
"The time you and the twins spent on earth," Wolverine began, looking at Shaman, "didja see any sorta resistance?"
"Not really," Shaman admitted. "But please remember we spent months lying low in the Canadian wilderness, trying to locate our families and stay away from FOH---we didn't actively seek a resistance since we were so focussed on surviving day to day."
"But we did receive some help," Northstar said. "There were a few churches and other groups that helped us out, hiding us, getting us provisions. We slept in a lot of church basements over the months."
"Yes," Shaman said, "they did assist us quite a bit but I never sensed that they were part of an organized network of resisters. My impression was that they viewed us as charity and helped us because they took pity on us."
"There gotta be people who want the FOH out. I'll find 'em." Wolverine vowed.
Storm listened to the exchange taking place, scarcely believing her ears. She saw others' expressions mirroring her surprise and dismay, as Wolverine and Shaman engaged in their dialog. Well, perhaps I should not be surprised,' she thought. It's not as though Wolverine and I have even sat down and had a good conversation anytime recently.'
Jean spotted Storm's concern. She herself did not like the idea of Wolverine forming a one-man resistance one bit. "Wait a second here," Jean began. "Before we talk about forming an underground resistance, can't we see how this mission goes first?"
"Jean's sure got a point," Rogue said. "If it goes well, we ain't gonna need a resistance on earth."
Wolverine grumbled, "You jus' said it's gonna take time."
Jean nodded. "Yes. But we might see a massive change, if we are patient." Jean paused. She looked around the table and then steadily met the gaze of the man who had once loved her very much and with whom she shared a mutual deep caring. Cyclops saw the look that Jean and Wolverine held for an instant and almost reeled. He recovered quickly, knowing and feeling Jean's love for him.
"I know these last few years have been very difficult for you, Logan," Jean said to Wolverine. Somehow she made her voice reflect only caring; no condescension was intended and none came across. "I know you like to separate yourself from the pack, so to speak, at times and I know you like to solve things…on your own and with the direct approach. These last few years, we X-men have practically been spending every waking moment together, and no one's really had the chance to go off on their own. And we've made only very slow progress on earth, saving a few groups of mutants at a time. But please, Logan….please wait just a little bit longer before considering relocating to earth."
Wolverine was silent for several seconds, and then he nodded. "Alright. I'll wait it out some more an' see what happens with this one."
Storm again observed, her heart pulsing. Of course,' Storm reflected, 'Jean asks him to stay with us, so he does. Had I asked, nothing would've happened and he would gladly have gone off.' She then cut off that train of thought. Ororo, you sound like a jealous schoolgirl again. You've already come to accept the that he doesn't love you.' She squeezed her eyes shut and thought, If he did leave this group, I would miss him so. I hope he doesn't change his mind about this.'
"Remy, I keep sayin' we gotta beat some sense into that Canucklehead, and I mean it!" Rogue exclaimed, sometime after the meeting had ended that day.
"I know it, chere. I know," Gambit said as they entered their quarters. Gambit removed his duster and casually tossed it onto the chair.
"What's this talk 'bout wanting to go off on his own?! I thought we learned from bein' X-men that there ain't any one-man cavalry here. We work best when we're a team," Rogue said, thoroughly enjoying venting.
Gambit shook his head. "If I go beat some sense into him, it be 'bout his treatment of Storm. He don't treat his lady right."
"Well, she ain't his lady' anymore, for one thing," Rogue grumbled. "Though if he had half a brain, she would be."
"You see how sad Storm look when he made dat comment about wanting to leave?" Gambit asked, his voice reflecting disgust.
"What the hell's it gonna take to make Mr. Stubborn Ass wake up and smell the hash browns??" Neither had the answer, but Rogue was coming closer and closer to deciding on approaching Wolverine.
One afternoon, the day after that last meeting, I found myself in the rec room, playing with the three kids. Jubilee was with me; Jean and Scott asked us to look after Christopher and Charlotte for just a bit as they finished up a training session.
"If Wolvie tries to leave us for some crazy, one-man rescue mission on earth, I'm gonna restrain him myself," Jubilee declared.
I smiled at the thought of her attempting to. "Maybe if enough of us tried," I joked, "we could. I could ice him. That might hold him for a bit. But I think we might need either the strength of Rogue or Jean's telekinetic powers to really hold him back."
"Well, he's not goin' back to earth, damn it! And I told him that myself this morning." Jubilee then paused and asked, "Are we crazy for doing this?"
"Crazy for talking about restraining Wolverine?" I asked.
"No, dumbass. For going back to earth!" she said. "We're going back to earth, when on our last mission, you all were almost killed. And when two missions ago, you, and Wolvie and Gambit got captured and transported half-way across the galaxy. It's a miracle we ever found you guys again. Why do we do this??"
I opened my mouth to speak but then I thought it would be meaningless to repeat the line about this mission being ultra-safe. We'd all heard it and said it a thousand times. "I know," I said. "There's always a chance something's gonna go wrong. When you're working to change the world, and you're going up something as powerful as FOH, who knows what sort of trouble's going to follow? I think we're lucky things haven't been worse," I added, but then regretted the words as I felt a jolt of pain. Colossus was killed, Storm and Northstar were both assaulted….and that was just on our last mission.
"How's Northstar doing?" Jubilee asked.
I was quiet for a moment and then replied. "He's ok. He's nervous though….I can tell. I tried once or twice to get him to talk about it, but he doesn't seem to want to." Then I added, "But he talked about it with his sister though. I heard them by the pool one day, and he did admit to her that he's nervous about another run-in with FOH. Even though we say we're not going to confront them this time."
"I can't say I blame him."
"I couldn't blame any of us for feeling nervous. I think it's natural for us to."
Jubilee looked at little Aurora, who was sitting side-by-side with Charlotte as each girl played with her own toy. "I'm going back into total guilt now," Jubilee said. "Like Jean needs to be on this mission 'cause she's this awesome telepath. I always feel so left out when I stay behind on An'zhina, so I wanted to go again. I always miss you guys when you're gone. And I figured that if it's safe enough for Jean and Scott to bring their kids, then it's safe enough for Aurora and me."
"I'm sure you're right about that," I insisted. Little Christopher was in the rec room with us, though his nap time was approaching and I knew he'd be falling asleep any minute since he was fading fast. He was parked in a stroller/crib type thing, and earlier Charlotte had been making a fuss over her brother.
"But I wonder again, you know? Am I being a bad mom---did I pick what was right for Rory or right for me?"
"Maybe you picked what was right for both of you. Look at how the two of them play together," I said, gesturing at the girls. "Didn't you say they really missed each other last time you went on a mission and Jean stayed at home? It's good for them to be together. There aren't any other kids on An'zhina."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. And I'm sure this mission's not gonna be that dangerous. But I'm a mom now, so I have to worry."
"I think you're doing a great job with the mom thing and have nothing to feel guilty over or worry over. So please don't ever like beat yourself up, Jubilee."
"I do sometimes, though. Like…." she broke off, and look a pointed look at the girls. "Like, you notice that Charlotte is more advanced than Rory? She talks more, strings words together way better. She walked before Rory walked. She already shows her powers."
"Jubes, making a comparison isn't going to do you any good. Why get hung up on it? I thought I heard that kids develop at all different rates."
"But Char is three months younger!"
"Well, so? I mean, I'm not like an expert on this stuff or anything but three months is not a lot of time. Besides…you really think people are sitting around, keeping a score card and comparing how fast the girls are growing?"
"Well, I can't help but-----" Jubilee began but was cut off by Charlotte. She began wailing and screaming some of the most horrible sounds I'd heard in a long time. I'd certainly never heard her screech like this before. Knowing the toddler had the power of empathy, I wondered if she was upset at our conversation, but I knew from hearing and looking at her, it had to be more than that. It had to be something a lot bigger and more upsetting than that. She was wailing in agony, as if someone were beating her senseless. Charlotte flailed her arms and legs as if she were having some sort of fit.
Jubilee ran over to Charlotte and held her, trying to calm the girl down. Charlotte continued to scream and cry. All I could do was place my hands over my ears at the ghastly sound. It really was freaky hearing the kid make such bone-shattering noises. Adding to the cacophony, when Charlotte started howling, Rory and Christopher soon joined her in crying, though they cried normal baby tears and not the yelling of the banshee that Charlotte was letting out. Fortunately, Jean Grey dashed into the rec room, with Scott soon behind her. Jubilee gladly handed Charlotte over to Jean, and Jean held her daughter, tying to calm her down.
"HURT!" Charlotte yelled at the top of her young lungs. "PAAAAIN!"
Jean shut her eyes and seemed to concentrate. Within the space of a few seconds, Charlotte was quiet. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious. "I put her to sleep," Jean explained. She was visibly shaken as all of us were. Cyclops was holding Christopher and Jubilee then picked up her own child. When they saw that Charlotte was quiet, Aurora and Chris soon stopped their own crying. Jean went on, "I had to put her mind to sleep, not just her body. It's like I had to put her mind on hold."
At some point during the chaos, Wolverine had entered the rec room. Despite the thickness of the walls, I'd guess he could hear the commotion. I think Charlotte's noises had been loud enough to wake the dead. "What's goin' on?" he asked, as Jean was setting Charlotte down to rest on one of the couches. Charlotte now looked as if she were taking a peaceful nap.
"What's wrong with her?" Scott asked, obviously very alarmed and even scared. "Never in my life have I heard her scream like that!"
"I don't think I've ever heard anything like that, period," Jubilee said. "It was like she was screaming bloody murder."
Jean shut her eyes briefly and took a breath. "We're now within telepathic range of earth," she said. "Freedom is now close enough that I can sense that there are billions of minds nearby. If I were to concentrate, I could start entering those minds right now."
"So was it the shock of it all?" I asked. "Is it because Charlotte's never been around billions of minds before and----" I stopped in my tracks. "Oh, but of course she has. Endaria has millions of citizens on its planet and the other moons. An'zhina's a lot closer to them then we are now to earth."
"Yeah, so why didn't it freak her out back then?" Jubilee asked.
Jean shook her head. Scott set Christopher, who was now quiet again, back inside his crib and put an arm around his wife. "It's a lot more than that," Jean said. "You're right, Bobby, that she has been in sensing range of millions of minds before. It's not the number of minds that overwhelmed her….it was what they were feeling." Jean said that last phrase with particular emphasis.
Scott nodded. "Charlotte senses people's emotions," he said, looking at Jean. "I bet she was overwhelmed when she suddenly tapped into the emotions of six---or is it seven now?---billion people and found so much grief."
"Exactly," Jean said, quietly and grimly. "When I touched Charlotte's mind, she couldn't deal with all the….misery. There's no other word for it. That's what so many of the six billion minds are feeling right this instant." Jean shook her head again, clearly awed and disquieted by what her daughter had been through.
Wolverine then spoke, and I was a bit surprised by his words. "Hank would know the quote I got on my mind now an' who said it. Something 'bout we all lead lives of quiet desperation.'"
"Yes," Jean said, sounding distant and somewhat overwhelmed herself. "When I touched Charlotte's mind, she was overwhelmed with feelings of….depression, of shame….anger….hopelessness….numbness. Fear---a lot of naked fear. And exhaustion, mental and physical. Oh god, it was awful! Millions and even billions of people feeling these things. That's why I had to mentally put her on hold for now. She hasn't dealt with it before." Scott pulled Jean closer to him.
"But….but don't most Endarians don't feel this stuff too?" Jubilee asked.
"They do, at times," Jean answered, now sounding more like herself. "I've read quite a bit about the Endarians during the time I've lived on An'zhina. Sure----everyone there feels sad or angry at times. But it's not….it's not endemic like it is on earth."
"The conditions there are different," Scott said. "They have a society that makes happiness a lot easier than it is back on earth. On earth, there's widespread war and poverty—everywhere. I read once---years before we left---that some 40,000 people on earth died every day of hunger-related causes. That alone….." he seemed to lose his train of thought, perhaps getting wrapped up in what his wife and daughter were going through. "The conditions on Endaria are totally different. They don't have war and they don't allow millions of people to go hungry or to be sick. I think the way their society is structured leads to less depression than on earth."
I looked around at the faces in the room. Jean's words were sinking in. There was a lot of misery on earth, and I'm sure we'd all known that. I couldn't say I was at all surprised at the realization that most of the billions of people on the planet were suffering. I had suffered so much in my own life, so many years of self-loathing and depression and of considering suicide---and I had never even experienced poverty or starvation or war. Probably everyone else standing in that room had felt those types of feelings too. All of us had been through our own hells. We were all quiet for a while.
"What about Charlotte?" Jubilee asked Jean. All eyes turned to the toddler on the sofa, who was now oblivious to us, to everything.
"I'm going to take her into our room and sit with her for a bit," Jean said. "I'll slowly wake' her consciousness up and see what I can do to buffer her from earth until she can accept it and deal with it. She can build up a tolerance for it and learn to cut herself off from people's pain." Jean paused, looked upwards, and then added, reflectively, "Don't we all cut ourselves off from it, to save our sanity." She then reached for Charlotte. "This might take some time." With that, Jean and Scott scooped up their children and left the rec room. I watched them leave, and then turned to Jubilee and Wolverine. Jubilee was still holding the now-silent Aurora within her arms.
"That kid's got the only sane reaction," Wolverine muttered, as he left Jubilee and I standing in the room.
We were now about a week away from earth and had slowed Freedom down so that we no longer were warping towards the planet. We didn't need to expend the dilithium since we were within telepathic range, as Charlotte had so brutally found out the day before. On impulse power, we drifted in the direction of earth.
It was a time of waiting for all of us, except Jean Grey. The mission revolved around her, yet obviously she couldn't do anything with changing FOH leaders' minds until Charlotte's condition was stabilized. The morning after the incident in the rec room, Cyclops reported to the rest of us over breakfast that teaching a two-year old how to block out the agonies of billions of minds has been more difficult than the couple expected. Until Jean could finish her work with Charlotte, we were in a holding pattern.
That evening, a small group of us had decided to throw a party in my and Northstar's room. We were bored of waiting and getting restless, so we decided to indulge in a few illegalities. My fellow partyers consisted of Jubilee, Jeanne-Marie, Dani Moonstar, and--of course--Jean-Paul. (We had invited Rogue and Remy, too, but they declined. I'm sure they held their own two-person party in their room. Maybe it even involved tying Gambit up. :) It wasn't like we had planned this to exclude anyone, either---it's just that Moonstar, Jeanne-Marie and I had gotten to talking at dinner that evening and got this idea to blow off some steam. Jubilee walked by our table and said she wanted in on this.
So the five of us started the party (after Jubilee's daughter Aurora had fallen asleep and Jubilee had left the girl in their room.) We replicated pizza and played CDs in the background. That part wasn't illegal, but I snuck into a room with a replicator and made some contraband booze for us. All of us drank heavily.
The five of us sat around on the floor of the room, drinking and talking, and playing dirty games like "True Confessions." I'm not sure if a game by that name ever existed before but Dani came up with it and we went with it. Right from the start, you knew there was going to be a lot of sexual bantering with a game that goes by this name. No one actually did anything sexual that drunken night but we basically talked about sex the whole time. We ended up confessing secret fantasies, describing in great detail our first times, etc, etc. I was so drunk, though, I don't recall most of what was said. But I do remember Jeanne-Marie at one point demonstrating a blow job by giving one to an empty bottle, and that I had declared I could do it better and gave my own demonstration on the same bottle. Moonstar described in great detail the exact size and shape of her favorite dildo and said she was way pissed that it was left back on earth somewhere. She also told us about her first time, which occurred when she was sixteen, and said that the other girl had braces and got them caught in Dani's pubic hair at one point. Ouch!
I remember Jubilee staggering out of the room at some early hour of the morning, and Moonstar and Jeanne-Marie stumbling out together not long afterwards. I woke up with a splitting headache.
After the next morning's Danger Room session, Cyclops pulled Bobby aside. "Bobby, what's wrong?" he asked. "You look horrible."
"I'm sorry, Cyke," Bobby muttered. "I'm just not feeling too well. I've got a terrible headache." Bobby had to really focus to even get the words out; his hangover drained him of so much energy. He had only gotten about four hours of sleep the previous night before as well. As soon as he'd pulled on his uniform and made his way to the Danger Room, he knew it would be a struggle to keep the ice shooting from his fingertips, let along actually hitting a target.
"You can stop for the day. Resume training tomorrow morning," Cyclops brusquely ordered. He looked at the clipboard he held. "You have a bridge duty session after dinner. Do you think you will be up to it by then?"
Bobby strained to think. "I guess so," he managed. 'After dinner' was so far into the future, he didn't even want to focus on it. All he could think of was laying back down and hoping the headache would go away.
Cyclops shook his head as Bobby made his way out of the gym. I might as well be looking at the Bobby of fifteen years ago,' he thought, a tad disgusted. Where did all that progress we made go?' Scott knew he would have to check in on the Iceman's bridge shift too, to ensure he really was alert enough to be playing this important role. Jean would say I gotta give the guy a break,' Scott thought to himself, trying to be fair. And she's right. Today Bobby's just having an off-day. His training ever since he returned to the X-men, though, has been pretty good. I'll cut him some slack….this once.'
A few hours later, however, Cyclops was on the bridge, performing a routine scan of the replicator patterns used on the ship. He liked to ensure they were making good use of their precious dilithium supply. After all, the X-men had enough dilithium to last them several more years—and they had found that moon with a nearly endless supply a while ago---, but all the warp drive they used really depleted the supply and it was still advisable for them to conserve at all times.
The scan of the replicator logs showed nothing out of the ordinary….people were allowed toiletries and personal items as needed, of course. They were also allowed non-necessary items as reasonable. (Storm had long-ago defined reasonable' as, "As long as you're not abusing the system." Cyclops had preferred a more strict definition but, in the group's early days in space, truly no one had really abused the system, to Cyclops's knowledge, so he'd been satisfied.)
An entry from the previous evening caught Scott's eye however. Pizza---three large thin-crust pizzas, to be precise. One with just cheese, one with sausage, and one with mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. That's okay,' Scott thought to himself. The group is allowed a bit of a splurge. Maybe a few people took these pizzas into the rec room and had a little party yesterday.' Scott had been with Jean and the kids, of course, then. As long as this doesn't happen every day, I'm sure we're fine,' he thought, fighting his urge to be stricter.
The next entry, however, was not to be easily excused. Alcohol, and lots of it. Several different types of drinks, all with real alcohol; none of it virgin. Cyclops's first impulse was to accuse Gambit and Rogue….but then suddenly Bobby's miserable Danger Room session in the morning made sense. Scott had seen the symptoms before: Iceman had a hangover. Scott punched a few more buttons on the computer and found that the code used to enter the request had indeed been Bobby's.
Storm then arrived at the bridge for her shift. "Hello, Cyclops," she said.
"Hi, Storm," he replied, though still looking at the computer screen in front of him.
"I know I'm a little early for my shift, but I wanted to start that diagnostic on the navigation systems. We're due for one."
"I know," Scott said.
"I'm going to begin work with Mark later today, to teach him how to run some of these tests." Storm and Cyclops had discussed earlier that Mark was performing well in his role as helper, and he'd asked if he could do anything more. Storm and Cyclops had agreed to expand his role and leverage his willingness to do more.
Cyclops nodded in response to Storm's words.
"You look preoccupied, Cyclops. Is something disturbing you?"
He took a deep breath. "Yes," he said. "Looks like Bobby's been abusing the food replicator. He replicated himself some booze yesterday evening."
"Really?" Storm asked, stepping behind Scott to get a good look at the screen. "I see that he also made himself a lot of pizza too. Hmmmmm. I wonder if something's wrong and he's slipping into depression again. Usually, as I recall, he does not necessarily drink or eat to excess when he's depressed, but I wonder if his behavior might be changing." From her tone, it was obvious that Storm was concerned about Bobby.
Scott opened his mouth to give a reflex reply, but on second thought, decided to keep silent. Several thoughts ran through his head, but the most prevalent one was the different way he and Storm had reacted to the same situation. Cyclops tried to picture himself and the scenario as a third party might. Wow,' he thought, his old insecurities creeping back in. She really is an amazing leader. I was all really to go reprimand Bobby, while she's more concerned about his well-being. Why can't that be my first reaction, instead of wanting to give Bobby a lecture? I assumed the pizza and alcohol were for a party, but maybe Bobby really is upset about something.' His thoughts then took a more somber turn. No wonder the group prefers Storm….' Cyclops was so dejected by that mental pathway, he simply looked down and said, "Yeah, I hope he's okay."
"I will talk to him today," Storm vowed. "As soon as my shift is over. That is….unless you wanted to."
"No," Cyclops said, "no….I think it would be better if you did it. Thanks for offering, Storm."
Jean Grey had a very full schedule. After nearly two full days had passed from the moment Freedom had flown close enough to earth to reach telepathic range, Jean finally succeeded in calming her daughter. Charlotte was now able to function, her psyche now trained to "ignore" the emotional states of the billions on earth. As soon as that was accomplished, Jean set about taking a long, well-deserved nap. When she was re-energized, she set about the task at hand: locating the FOH leaders and changing their minds. As she had predicted, it was a slow process.
Meanwhile, the rest of the X-men continued about their business. Many were interested in the happenings on earth and, as they now had quite a bit of leisure time, set about searching for news reports. Bobby located an underground website, one which published news not made available through the company which owned the media, GenCore.
Northstar entered the mess hall that evening for dinner and sat down next to Bobby. "Did you have any luck in finding a good news source today?" he asked, getting right down to business. Bobby sat a table with Nightcrawler, Cannonball, Rogue, and Gambit who were all engaged in another discussion and not listening to Northstar and Iceman's exchange.
"Yes," Bobby began glumly. He had some news to share with his partner, and it was not to be any sort of good news.
"What is it?" Northstar asked, knowing the look on Bobby's face did not bode well.
"What we talked about the other night…it's true," Bobby mumbled.
Northstar knew exactly what was on Bobby's mind. "You mean….you mean they really are rounding up gays and putting them in camps?" Northstar asked, his heart sinking.
"Yes. The news source said that the Centers for Disease Control and the UN set this policy up a few months ago. They apparently have been raiding membership lists of gay groups and raiding gay bars, and rounding up the men. They say the quarantine is temporary until the spread of AIDS can be contained', or some bullshit like that. The report also said they're rounding up any gay guy they can get their hands on, regardless of whether he's actually got HIV or not. The 'quarantine' is in effect in the US, Canada, most countries in Africa, and throughout Southeast Asia."
"Merde," Northstar swore under his breath. "How dare they? As if we're the only group that gets AIDS! And if they hadn't ignored it for so long, we probably wouldn't have millions dying of the disease in the first place!" A few heads at the table turned in Northstar's direction, but he continued on, oblivious. He did, however, pause for a moment to fight to regain some calm. Looking at Bobby, he asked, "Do we know anything about these….what are they being called? The camps where the men are being held?"
"I can't remember the official term," Bobby said. "But the news report didn't go into any detail. They said very little is known about this. They estimated the number of men who've been rounded up in North America is maybe 1-2,000. They said they have no idea how many in Africa or Asia but expect it to be much higher."
Northstar fought to keep his breathing under control. "We can't stand for this, Bobby! We cannot! We must talk to Cyclops and Storm at once….what am I saying? We must talk to Storm at once about this and see what can be done!"
Northstar was cut off when all eyes in the room turned towards Hank and Panda. The happy couple had bounded into the mess hall moments ago, bearing pictures of their child in utero. Panda had underwent amniocentesis that day. "We're going to have a boy!" Panda said. She went on to talk about the rest of the test results. "Everything is progressing well, the baby's in good, healthy condition. We're thrilled!" Standing next to her, Hank beamed with pride. Panda generally had a calm, take-everything-in-stride countenance, so it was a switch to hear her so animated and excited.
The mood in the room switched to a celebratory one, and Northstar--- through an act of strong will and counter to his instincts---put his anger aside. He wanted to be sincerely happy for Bobby's dearest friend and Panda. No one was more relieved of that than Bobby. He knew that he and Jean-Paul were heading for a heated disagreement at best.
When Panda and Hank arrived at their table, Bobby merrily gushed over the grainy, dark photos of the fetus and asked them numerous questions, engaging them in detailed conversation. Northstar noted how delighted Hank and Panda appeared at Bobby's interest in their impending arrival. But Northstar knew that Bobby had an ulterior motive----deflecting the conversation the two of them had been having.
Northstar, however, vowed to discuss with Bobby the contested subject at a later date.
Wolverine entered the mess hall later than most of the others that same day, as he had to finish his bridge duty shift. The doors swung aside to reveal Panda and Hank sitting at a table with Storm, pouring over the pictures of their baby. The trio were the only ones remaining in the cafeteria by this point.
"Logan, how wonderful that you have joined us!" Hank exclaimed. "Please, sit with us and view the results of the amniocentesis!"
"Panda is carrying a boy," Storm said.
Wolverine noted that Storm's voice carried such….warmth, such genuine happiness for the couple. What a delight she was to listen to. As he took a seat at the table, he noted with a tug of dissatisfaction that Storm no longer carried the scent of his mate. In the past, when Storm had entered the room, Logan's animal instincts would automatically deliver the message to his brain that his mate had entered the room. No longer. They had been apart too long.
"A little playmate for Christopher," Panda was saying. She quickly added, "Not that he couldn't play with the girls too…but I think it's wonderful that we'll have two girls and two boys now."
"For the X-nursery," Storm added, smiling.
"Congratulations, Hank, Panda," Wolverine said. "He's gonna be one lucky little guy to have parents like you."
"Thank you."
The foursome went on to pour over the pictures and talk more about the upcoming arrival. Wolverine continued to sneak periodic glances at Storm. She don't need me,' he thought. She wouldda said somethin' or approached me, but she hasn't.' Though he would never admit it to anyone, his confidence was shot as well. Logan had suffered a crushing defeat when Sara had told him she wanted to be in a relationship with Angel. He wasn't exactly eager now to go on the prowl again.
Jean Grey's progress moved along at a slow but steady pace. Cyclops periodically reported back to the group the results of Jean's all-day sessions. "It's very strange," he said. "Jean is encountering periodic resistance from Emma Frost. She's fairly certain it is Emma," he added quickly. "The strange thing, Jean tells me, is that Emma could put up a lot more resistance….but Emma's blocking technique is very sporadic."
"Perhaps Emma is only mounting a half-hearted campaign to stop Jean," Storm suggested. "From what Mark has told us, it seems that Emma is not all that committed to FOH. Perhaps she does not really wish to hinder us."
Whatever the case, no FOH starships sprang forward to challenge the X-men. Either Emma could not pinpoint their location or she had no interest in divulging it to FOH. "It's quite possible that Emma simply can't locate us," Cyclops told the group. "Our starship is drifting several days away from earth. Space is so massive…I couldn't be surprised if Emma just doesn't know where we are. Only that we're out here."
"For all we know," Rogue said, "FOH might have a ton of cloaked ships sniffing around, trying to find us."
"Eternal vigilance," Beast added. "We know that we must be prepared at all times."
Cyclops was finding this period to be a strain as well. With Jean spending the almost all of her waking hours engaged in the psychic mission, all of the couple's childcare fell on Scott's shoulders. He loved taking care of the two children, but it was tiring work.
"I knew you weren't just going to drop this subject," I said to Jean-Paul. We were sitting on the bridge during my duty session, the day after I had discovered that back on earth, gay men were being quarantined.
"And I cannot believe how blasé you're acting about this!" he said. "It is almost as if you do not care."
"Jean-Paul, don't be ridiculous. Of course I care," I said, and I think it came through in my voice. "It really, really hurts me to think that our own kind are being rounded up into camps, just like mutants are, to stop the spread of some disease that they may or may not even have. They've done nothing wrong. It scares me and it makes me mad as hell." I paused and took a breath. "But what can we really do about it, Jean-Paul? We're here with the X-men on a stealth mission. We're not on a rescue mission now."
"Then we need to talk to Storm!" he insisted. "She would listen. I think she would be sympathetic."
"I agree she'll be sympathetic," I said, struggling to keep my voice calm and to think of a way to get through to Jean-Paul. "But what the heck is she going to do about it? I mean, there's a lot of stuff happening on earth that none of us like but, like I said, we're not on that type of mission. I'm sure there's a lot going on in Storm's native continent that troubles her, but she knows she can't get into that now. The purpose of this mission is for Jean to use her telepathy to change the mindsets of FOH leaders."
"Well that's not going to do any good for all the gay men who are being rounded up into camps!"
"It's not going to do any immediate good for mutants inside FOH camps either! We're not on a rescue mission," I repeated.
"So what do you suggest we do?" he asked, sounding both incredulous and disgusted. "Nothing??"
I shrugged. "There really is nothing we can do," I said apologetically. "We can talk to Storm and Cyke, and I'm sure they'll express some sympathy and regret over the situation----if that's what you want to hear, Jean-Paul." I kept my voice sounding gentle so that didn't came off as harsh as it could have. I continued, "But you know they're not going to authorize any sort of attack." I paused, and added," And please don't go getting any crazy ideas---you and I are not going to break away and form a gay version of the Psylocke-Marrow team."
Jean-Paul snorted at my comment and repeated, "I just cannot believe that you don't care about this."
"I do care!" I repeated.
We went around and around like that for a long time, talking in circles and not coming to any agreement. Jean-Paul wanted to do something. He kept insisting we talk to Storm, and I kept telling him there was nothing she could authorize us to do about it. After a long time of each of us repeating himself and not getting to any sort of consensus, he stomped out of the room.
That night, we went to bed not speaking to each other. (But at least sleeping in the same room…he could've gone to his own room but didn't.) After not too long the next day, we slowly began talking again, though avoiding the contentious subject. More time passed and we slowly warmed back up to each other. Apparently we'd tacitly just "agreed to disagree."
Chapter 21
Chapter 23